The 3 best mobile office apps for the iPad

You can't do business on the desktop without an office suite, and the same rule applies on the mobile front. Creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations are all necessary tasks in order to keep your business flowing, and being able to do so on the move is a massive boon.

To that end, we’ve picked out our three favourite options for office suites on Apple’s tablet. One other point to bear in mind: If you’re using your iPad as a serious productivity tool, you’ll likely want to invest in some kind of keyboard – like Apple’s Wireless Keyboard – or a keyboard/case combo.

iWork (£6.99 per app)

If you had any doubts regarding the iPad's productivity chops, look no further than Apple's own iWork suite. Comprised of three separate apps – Keynote, Numbers, and Pages – this mobile office suite is a must-have app for getting work done on Apple's slate. Of the three individual apps, Pages is very capable (though it's best used with a keyboard, as we’ve already mentioned), Numbers is a terrific portable number-crunching tool, and Keynote is dazzling and effective. The downside here is that all three apps work out to be quite expensive (£21) compared to the competition. Of course, if you’ve only just bought your iPad, you get the iWork suite for free these days – which is a major bonus.

Quickoffice (free)

Quickoffice was a great product, and then got snapped up by Google – which made it even stronger in some respects. As you would expect, it syncs up smoothly with Google Drive, and it’s fully compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It’s free too, which is obviously great value for money – the only downside is that some users report glitches here and there.

Polaris Office (£8.99)

Polaris Office significantly improves your ability to get work done and be productive with an iPad, as it's a great three-in-one app for editing and creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. For the full lowdown on the app, check out our review here, and note that version 5 of the suite will be out soon – promising lots of goodies including enhanced Office compatibility, and wider cloud service support.